Fulham boss Scott Parker is a much better manager than ex-Chelsea boss Frank Lampard - Paul Parker
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Updated 26/02/2021 at 16:17 GMT
Fulham have lost just one of their last seven PL matches. The southwest London club have produced crucial wins over Everton and most recently Sheffield United as boss Scott Parker looks to close in on 17th-placed Newcastle and pull off a great escape. Former Fulham defender Paul Parker believes Scott has already proven he is a better manager than former Chelsea and Derby manager Frank Lampard.
Frank Lampard (L) and Scott Parker (R)
Image credit: Getty Images
It’s been an incredible revival at Fulham. It's something that has never really been seen in recent Premier League years where a team makes such a transformation mid-season.
Scott Parker has changed it all. Instead of going route one, the easiest thing to go and do is get a big centre forward and get the ball forward as quickly as possible, score an early goal and sit and hope, he has stuck to the way they want to play as a club.
It was very much like that even during my time with the way Malcolm Macdonald wanted to play (1982-84), even when they were in the third division.
Everyone is talking about Frank Lampard and what he did at Derby, but Scott has already proven himself a better manager than Frank Lampard.
Take away how much the press want to be best friends with Lampard and because of what he did as a Chelsea player. Take that away and judge him as being the football manager he is.
When Scott took over at Fulham they got relegated. He’s taken the team out of the Championship into the Premier League. Now he’s reconstructed a team that started poorly and were relegation fodder and has flipped them around at the half-turn of the season to a side that has got one of the best current forms.
Lampard goes to Derby where had the biggest budget. He went there when they were sixth, he finished there in sixth. He hasn’t taken a team out of the Championship.
Scott Parker already has got a better pedigree, yet no one talks about him about what he’s got and what he’s done. People don’t mention what he could do at a big club but everyone wants to give Frank Lampard a job.
He’s given them a chance when before they could have been almost gone already. In his pre- and post-match interviews he’s been composed.
There’s a massive difference between someone who has been given a job because of silver spoons to someone who has been having to go round and dig holes for a living to keep himself in his job.
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If they stuck with their initial centre-back pairing of Michael Hector and Tim Ream they would have been relegated already. Fulham has allowed Scott to bring in unknown players and he's done really well.
Joachim Andersen has been a revelation as a centre-back and captain. He's had to tweak it in midfield to play the football he still wanted Fulham to play and what he enjoyed.
Scott was very intricate with his passing as a player. He didn't give it away cheaply and he's got someone in Harrison Reed in his mould. Tom Cairney was not dynamic enough in midfield.
Up front he's varied it with Ivan Cavaleiro and Bobby Decordova-Reid. He's been brave as a manager. Instead of going on sentiment he's left out Aleksandar Mitrovic - a cult hero for what he did to help get them promoted.
I wonder if that was an easier decision for him to make with there being no fans in the stadium. Without the crowd at Craven Cottage it is has made it easier for everything to run its course without him hearing anything in his ears.
It's worked out for the best because now they have a team where everyone is pulling their weight in every single department. If you look at them and Newcastle, there's a big difference in how they go about things.
Newcastle are expecting to stay up while Fulham are working hard to stay up.
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